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It was 1991 when news of Victoria toddler Michael Dunahee’s disappearance horrified the country. The thought that a child could be snatched from a playground just metres away from his parents was unimaginable.

At the time, psychic Norm Pratt was living in Banff with his two young sons, one of whom was four, the same age as Dunahee. The news struck home.

It was a time when many still left their doors unlocked, and kids just didn’t go missing. Pratt was deeply affected by the disappearance, and followed the news through a series of false leads and incorrect theories.

Like so many Canadians, he felt frustrated when each new clue turned up nothing.

But he was also developing his psychic skills — visions and premonitions he said he struggled with for about 10 years before realizing he had a special ability.

“I found it disturbing. I had these premonitions of three different close friends dying before it happened. There was some guilt, like wondering if there was more I could have done to warn them,” he said.

“I had this burgeoning psychic ability but didn’t know what to do with it.”

So when Dunahee’s mother Crystal went on TV asking for tips and help from the public, he suddenly realized what he wanted to do.

“The penny dropped. I knew then that I wanted to help in situations where information isn’t being generated in any other way.”

Pratt, now 54 and a resident of Nelson, never participated in the Dunahee case, first because he was so new to the practice when the boy disappeared, and now because he only works on cases where he is contacted by either the police or a family member, someone directly linked to a missing person.

The father of four worked hard for the next 10 years — daily meditation, yoga, reading spiritual books, and talking to other psychics.

He now calls himself a “spiritual intuitive,” someone able to receive guidance through dreams, visions, intuitive impressions and psychic ability.

“I tried to meet people with integrity. I met a lot of flaky psychics I didn’t care to meet again. My colleagues are coroners and the odd police officer because we can relate,” he said. “I’ve really had to make my own way through this whole process.”

Then in 2005, he got his first job, helping local authorities in the Kootenays find the body of a missing hiker, 23-year-old Kimberley Anne Sargeant. The lead investigator had exhausted all leads. A ground and air search had turned up nothing, so he turned to Pratt.

“We went up in the helicopter and in my mind’s eye I could see the girl jumping around on the ground and I said, ‘That’s where she is.’ So they threw flagging tape out the window and it turned out that’s where the body was found.”

Pratt said he heard the young woman’s spirit tell him that she had hung her coat on a branch to help them find her near an old-growth tree. The branch had broken, he said, but the girl’s coat was still there. Investigator Sgt. Steve Bank told media at the time that without the help of a psychic, he didn’t think they would have found her.

Pratt has since written a book about that case, which also documents how he developed his intuition he calls The Spirit Tracker.

Nearly 20 cases later, Pratt is still aiding police in their searches for missing people. Last month, he was contacted to help find the body of a man missing in Coquitlam. The coroner suggested to the family that they speak with Pratt.

Nick Candeloro, 44, disappeared after going for a walk on July 3. Police have not released information on how he died, but foul play has been ruled out.

After an extensive three-week ground and air search turned up no sign of him, the family somewhat reluctantly called Pratt on the suggestion of a coroner.

“That’s when I felt that he’d passed,” said Pratt. “Once I’ve made a connection with the family and with the spirit, it doesn’t go away. So all week I just made notes about what I was feeling and the impressions I had from speaking with the (missing) man’s wife.”

He began to put the story together on an intuitive level.

“It’s like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. You make a framework and say ‘Here’s what’s going on.’ ”

He had only two places in mind. The first turned up nothing, but after visiting the second location accompanied by Candeloro’s brother-in-law, they found the man’s remains in a ravine on a trail near the family’s home.

Pratt didn’t want to share many details about the case, or how the man died, out of respect for the family’s privacy.

“This was an exhaustive search. They used search and rescue, and had a helicopter, and an army of volunteers. And that’s where it gets difficult for me because they are saying ‘This area has been scoured,’ but on my intuitive side I thought ‘I really think he is here,’ ” he said.

Guido Titotto, the brother of Candeloro’s wife Gina, was overwhelmed by how quickly Pratt found his brother-in-law’s body.

“We went down to an area and he starts saying, ‘I’m getting a hit, I feel Nick.’ He was drawn to the location because he was able to connect with Nick’s spirit. And the next thing you know, he is heading into a bush and went right to the body.”

The area had already been scoured by search and rescue crews, Titotto said. All that was left of Candeloro’s body was skeletal remains so they didn’t know if it was him, but Titotto said Pratt “just knew it was Nick.”

Titotto said the family was grateful for Pratt’s help.

“We’re a strong Catholic family, so for us this was out of the ordinary — you know it was paranormal stuff — and we were skeptical. But after talking to Norm it became easier to understand. I asked him how many people he finds, and he said out of the last four (cases) he worked on he found them all. So I said let’s make it five for five.”

Pratt doesn’t always find the missing person he is seeking, but when he does, he said he is always amazed that it happens.

“Like everyone else I kind of stand back and say, ‘I don’t know how that happened’ but it does,” he said. “It’s a little hard, but I’m feeling this guy and I know it’s him and then I find his remains. On the one hand I have to be emotionally detached, but on the other you need an open heart to do this work. All I have to do is regard it as the truth, what I’m seeing and hearing and feeling.”

Pratt doesn’t have a standard rate for a missing person case, and said it depends on the depth of his involvement, expenses, and people’s ability to pay. For the Coquitlam case, he charged a flat $2,000 to cover expenses — flights, hotel, food, etc. He said because he finished quickly, he refunded $500 to the man’s father, who paid the fee. Pratt said the man pledged to give the money to his son’s widow.

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